Hearing assistance devices, such as hearing aids, process sound played for a user of the device. Wearers of hearing aids undergo a process called “fitting” to adjust hearing aid settings to their particular hearing and use. In such fitting sessions the wearer may select one setting over another, much like selecting one setting over another setting in an eye test. Other types of selections include changes in level, which can be a preferred level by the wearer. After the initial fitting process, the wearer may desire further adjustments of hearing aid settings to further tune the device and/or to match different acoustic environments.
Hearing aid settings are adjusted through a programmer that is attached to a personal computer (PC) and that allows a hearing professional to make changes via a software graphical user interface. The programmer communicates from the PC to the hearing aids through either a wired or wireless communication protocol. There are several different hearing aid programmers available to program hearing aids. Some are proprietary to and work with only certain hearing aid manufacturer's products while others are compatible with a variety of manufacturers' products.
Current designs in fitting software require the professional to manually select and use only one programmer at a time to detect hearing aids. If the correct programmer is not selected, the user must take action to change to a different programmer even though the correct programmer may be connected to the PC.
There is a need in the art for an improved system for using multiple programmers for hearing assistance devices.